Walmart’s New “Pay With Cash” Feature Lets You Shop Online Without Plastic

Walmart is looking to expand the reach of its online store by offering customers the chance to pay for their orders with cash. Of course, this new feature will allow shoppers without plastic to take advantage of the many items that are available online – thousands more than are available in stores. This is the first venture of this type from a major retailer.

Here’s how it will work:

First, you find what you want on Walmart.com, add it to your cart, and proceed to checkout. While you’re checking out, you’ll see that there is now a “pay with cash” option alongside the traditional plastic options. Once you select that, you’ll receive a confirmation number and email receipt.

After that you have 48 hours to take your receipt to a Walmart store and pay for your item. Once they get your cash, they’ll ship it to the store or your house.

This new “pay with Cash” online option is available in every U.S. Walmart store as well as their Neighborhood Markets (the grocery-type stores).

Walmart says that there is definitely a market for this new service. They site figures from the FDIC that say one in four households are either “unbanked” or “underbanked,” meaning that they have little to no access to banking options. These people, naturally, make most of their purchases with cash. But out of the “unbanked,” 81% have interent access. Considering those facts, it’s hard to say that this isn’t a smart move by Walmart. They say the majority of transactions made at their stores are cash anyway (this includes debit), with only 15% consisting of credit cards.

“Many of our customers shop paycheck to paycheck and are looking for more ways to purchase items online but don’t have the means to a credit, debit or prepaid card,” said Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com. “Our new ‘Pay with Cash’ offering is designed just for them. It makes it easier for our customers to shop the way they want, where they have access to a broader product selection at Walmart.com coupled with the convenience of payment and shipping as they want.”

What do you think? Will this help Walmart expand their clout in the online shopping sphere? Will customers take advantage of it? Let us know in the comments.